Updated: 06-29-2000

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The battle for Elian Gonzalez

On Thanksgiving Day 1999, 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez became the center of a political and international tug-of-war when he was rescued from a floating inner tube off the coast of Florida. Elian's mother had died trying to flee from Cuba and his relatives in Miami wanted him to stay in the United States as his mother clearly wanted. But Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, still lived in Cuba and wanted his son returned.

For the next five months, Elian's case was front-page news as courts and politicians argued over his fate. The Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Department of Justice declared that Elian should be returned to his father. Anti-Castro Cuban-Americans and Republican lawmakers wanted to grant him asylum in the United States.

On April 22, 2000, after negotiations with the family broke down, federal agents stormed the home of the Miami relatives he had been living with and seized Elian. Although the raid lasted only three minutes and resulted in no injuries, it left behind images of armed agents taking the child by force.

Although Elian was returned to his father's custody, the two remained in the United States pending the Miami relatives' appeal. On June28, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected without comment or dissent a request by Elian's Miami relatives to extend an injunction keeping Elian in the United States. The court also refused an appeal by the relatives to consider the custody case.

Elian and his father returned to Cuba the same day.

Chronology of the Elian Gonzalez case Nov. 22, 1999: Elian and 13 others leave Cardenas, Cuba, for the United States aboard a 16-foot motorboat. Nov. 23, 1999: The boat capsizes. Nov. 25, 1999: Ariane Horta and Nivaldo Fernandez come ashore at Key Biscayne, Fla. Elian, clinging to an inner tube, was rescued a short time later about three miles from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and is taken to the hospital. Elian's mother is among 11 people who died. Nov. 26, 1999: Elian is released from the hospital. Immigration and Naturalization Service releases him to great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez until the agency can determine immigration status. Nov. 27, 1999: Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Elian's father, demands his son's return to Cuba. Dec. 10, 1999: Lazaro Gonzalez applies for asylum for Elian. Dec. 31, 1999: INS interviews Juan Miguel Gonzalez in Havana. Jan. 5, 2000: INS decides Elian belongs with his father and must be returned to Cuba by Jan. 14. Jan. 7, 2000: Lazaro Gonzalez files a petition for temporary custody in state court. Jan. 12, 2000: Attorney General Janet Reno upholds the father's right to custody of Elian. Jan. 19, 2000: Lazaro Gonzalez files a federal lawsuit to block Elian's return to Cuba. Jan. 21-22, 2000: Elian's grandmothers arrive in New York from Cuba, meet with Reno to appeal for Elian's return. Jan. 24, 2000: Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and a group of Florida lawmakers begin attempts to give citizenship to Elian without father's consent. Feb. 14, 2000: Lawyers for Miami relatives argue that INS can't send Elian back to Cuba without asylum hearing. March 21, 2000: U.S. district judge dismisses lawsuit by Lazaro Gonzalez. March 27-29, 2000: Elian describes, in first TV interview, how the boat sank. He says he doesn't believe his mother is dead and doesn't want to return to Cuba. April 3, 2000: Elian's father arrives in Washington. April 12, 2000: Reno meets with Elian's relatives in Miami and orders them to surrender him to fly to Washington for a reunion with his father. April 13, 2000: Elian's relatives defy the order. They obtain an order from a federal appeals court that keeps Elian in the United States while the fight goes on. April 19, 2000: A federal appeals court extends the court order until a hearing in May. April 20, 2000: Juan Miguel Gonzalez asks Americans to urge immediate action. President Clinton would later say Elian should be reunited with his father. April 22, 2000: Federal agents seize Elian from his relatives' home in Miami to take him to his father in Washington. June 28, 2000: Elian and his father return to Cuba.   Source: The Associated Press